With No Convictions for Minova Rapes, UN Praises DR Congo, US Samantha Power on Bilateral Training, But Minova's 391st Battalion was US Trained

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- Fifteen months after two units of the Congolese Army committed over 100 rapes at Minova, "Sexual Violence in Conflict" was the topic of a panel discussion at the UN on March 6.  

   The UN's envoy on the topic, Zainab Bangura, praised Congolese president Joseph Kabila for his new focus on rape. But have there been any convictions at all for the 100 rapes 15 months ago?

  US Ambassador Samantha Power spoke movingly, also citing the US' bilateral training. But one of the two units involved in the rapes, the 391st Battalion, was trained by the US. 

  To her credit, and as Inner City Press first reported, Power raised the Minova rapes to Kabila during the Security Council's French-led trip on October. But what progress if any has been made since then?

  The Enough Project, which ran the event, promised that questions like this one, submitted on paper in the room and on Twitter, will be answered. We'll see.

  The head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous dodged Press questions about the Minova rapes for months, even directing his spokesperson to seize the microphone so the questions couldn't be asked. Click here for that video.

  On March 6 Ladsous was at it again, refusing to answer a Press question about allowing a UN-listed child soldier recruiter into "his" mission on Mali and prospectively in the Central African Republic. At the UN, grandiose speeches are given, but too often there is little follow through and no accountability.

 Here's a place to start: the US-trained 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army FARDC, which took part in the mass rape at Minova.

   That was more than 14 months ago, and yet at a February press conference by the UN Mission in the Congo MONUSCO, it was reported that in the already delayed interview of victims in Minova, interviewers spoke with barely a quarter of the more than 200 listed victims. Still no justice. 

  Again: the 391st Battalion, one of two charged with the Minova rapes, was trained by the United States. (Click here for comment the US Mission to the UN provided to Inner City Press, which also first reported that Ambassador Samantha Power raised Minova to Joseph Kabila in October.) 

  Kobler acknowledged that the most recent hearing in the Minova case had been postponed, that witness statements have still not been taken. Video here, from Minute 6:32. 

  Given that the UN says it has a Human Rights Due Diligence Policy of not supporting army units engaged in abuses, how much longer will the UN accept this? Fifteen months and counting.

   Watch this site.
   

Congo War Machine of Ladsous, Reuters & UN's Radio Okapi, Bangura Like Human Rights Watch Ignores Post-Rape Desecration?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 -- The UN claims to be impartial, to care equally about all victims, to not be a tool of Permanent members of the UN Security Council like France and the US. In and on the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently, and at UN Peacekeeping generally, this has not been the case.

  Consider just the past two days. The UN's office on Sexual Violence in Conflict, run by Zainab Bangura, which has been surprisingly quiet as UN Peacekeeping has continued to support the US-trained Congolese Army's 391st Battalion after it was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova, belatedly decided to tweet about rape in the Congo.

  But it was not about Minova, nor about the newer implication of the 391st Battalion in the desecration of corpses. No, it was a straight re-tweet of a Human Rights Watch report that even HRW belated appended a correction to. Neither HRW or Bangura's UN office mentioned the correction. The Free UN Coalition for Access, through@FUNCA_Questions, has asked Bangura's office about it, so far without response.

  Inner City Press asked Bangura on July 24 about the dearth of arrests -- only two -- for the rapes in Minova, and about the new charges of corpse desecration against the same 391st Battalion. She said she hadn't heard of the latter -- strange, since a statement said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply concerned about them -- but on the rapes, said she had "spoken with Herve Ladsous" about them earlier in the day.

  But spoke about what? It was Ladsous who essentially waved Ban's claimed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and decided to continue to support the 391st Battalion after the Minova rapes. 

 Now it seems that rather than answer any Press questions about this decision, he is trying to implicate other UN officials like Leila Zerrougui in his decision. She and Bangura have potential, but there is the Ladsousification of the UN.

  In the DRC itself, the UN's Radio Okapi broadcast the UN Mission MONUSCO's weekly press conference Wednesday morning. Okapi itself asked a question -- based on the HRW report, without noting the correction.

  In Washington on Tuesday, the State Department's ownVoice of America asked a planted question about the DRC, also about the HRW report without noting the correction, and got a canned answer. This was reported, for example, by Reuters without at first included anything about the correction.

  Later Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, who has been shown to have leaked to the UN internal documents of the ostensibly independent United Nations Correspondents Association to the UN's chief accreditation official, typed up a fast and sloppy piece on Rwanda's anger at HRW blatant error of using the testimony of an unnamed "witness" who falsely said Rwanda has peacekeeping forces in Somalia. But this piece has HRW flatly denying it pays in connection with its studies.

  HRW has already admitted this, in December 2012. Reuters does not mention it. As on the Eritrea sanctions report -- click here for that -- the Reuters UN bureau is part of a machine. Watch this site.

   

On Minova, DPKO Gets ICP Question, Gives Statement to Reuters Scribe Michelle Nichols

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 -- Reporting on the 126 rapes in Minova in November by the Congolese Army, Inner City Press before 10 am on Tuesday asked UN sexual violence in conflict envoy Zainab Bangura if the UN was still supporting the two Army units it had said it would suspend.

  Bangura replied to Inner City Press that support had been suspended, but to ask DPKO, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

  Inner City Press immediately asked DPKO and Ban Ki-moon's three top spokespeople, and asked at the noon briefing until cut off by Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, 

  He said DPKO would answer “quite shortly,” video here from Minute 11:25. But now a responsive statement has been given at least to Reuters, increasingly Herve Ladsous' DPKO's go-to scribe or lapdog, but NOT to Inner City Press. An objection has been filed.

  At 10:14 am on April 16 Inner City Press e-mailed three questions to DPKO spokespeople Kieran Dwyer and Andre-Michel Essoungou, copying Ban Ki-moon's top three spokespeople Martin Nesirky, Eduardo Del Buey and Farhan Haq. On Minova:

At a briefing by Zainab Bangura just now, when I asked her about the Minova rapes she said, among other things,

1) that DPKO has suspended support to the two unit. She then told me to ask DPKO, so I am. Please confirm or deny.

2) that the general of one unit told her they have identified 33 suspected rapists. Please state if that is DPKO's understanding, and if so why the suspension of 12 (and arrest of 3) is considered sufficient by DPKO.

3) that one of the two units was trained by the United States. Is that DPKO's understanding? Please confirm or deny.

  Dwyer confirmed receipt, “I will need to communicate with the mission on the matters related to MONUSCO, and other colleagues on the other matters. I will get back to you. You will understand that this will take a little time. It's not clear to me what you mean by "on deadline" given the nature of your website publishing, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

  Inner City Press explained to all addressees, “Last Thursday, April 11 I asked at the noon briefing about the Minova rapes, and you were quoted giving the answer to the question to Reuters (but not Inner City Press) later that same day, which was then later given at the Friday, April 12 noon briefing. Inner City Press complained about that on April 12; the Free UN Coalition for Access is formally objecting. On this, note that Inner City Press has asked you these questions at 10:14 am, April 16.”

  Because the UN should have been able to immediately answer Inner City Press' question about having suspended or not having suspended support, Inner City Press went to the day's UN noon briefing and began asking.

  Nesirky cut the question off, saying that DPKO would be answering “quite shortly.”

  Then, without any response to Inner City Press from DPKO or Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office, Reuters via its scribe who has done this (and more) before reported:

“The United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday it was still supporting the two battalions 'in view of a number of recent and appropriate actions being taken by the authorities.'”

  The most recent press release on MONUSCO's web site is from March 24.  Inner City Press immediately wrote to Dwyer, Essoungou, Nesirky, Del Buey and Haq:

I put in Inner City Press' questions at 10:14 am, and was asking at the noon briefing before being cut off and told that DPKO would be giving me answers "quite shortly." ... Now I have just read in Reuters: "The United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday it was still supporting the two battalions 'in view of a number of recent and appropriate actions being taken by the authorities.'"

This is a formal request -- where IS that statement? When and to whom was it given? Why was it not given to Inner City Press? How is this, along with USG Ladsous and spokesman microphone grab of December 18, 2012 and refusing to take questions, in any way acceptable?

  Of Michelle Nichols, Inner City Press has shown, including to Reuters big wigs Stephen J. Adler, Greg McCune, Paul Ingrassia and Walden Siew  and even the company “social media editor,” the filing of a manifestly false complaint with UN Security (in it claiming that when DPKO spoon-feeds information to Reuters, including answers to the questions Inner City Press has asked, it is a “Reuters scoop”). 

  There's more, but the focus is on DPKO's -- and now Ban's Spokesperson's office -- new low. Watch this site.

On Minova Rapes, Bangura Says Unit Trained by US, 33 Perps, Ladsous Contrasts

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 -- One of the two Congolese Army rape units in Minova was “trained by Americans,” and a general has identified 33 suspected rapists, UN envoy Zainab Bangura told Inner City Press on Tuesday. Video here, on the latter.

  Both of these contradict what the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, led by Herve Ladsous, has said. 

 After Ladsous repeatedly refused to answer Inner City Press' questions about the rape (November 27, December 7,December 18 and since), DPKO told scribes from Agence France Presse and Reuters that of 12 suspensions for the rapes.

  But Bangura on Tuesday, even when asked a second time by Inner City Press, said that at least 33 presumptive rapists have been identified. 

  Why would Ladsous' DPKO still be low-balling the number, after stonewalling on the rapes for more than four months? We have asked, at 10:14 am, and DPKO has acknowledged receipt (while stating it does not understand what "deadline" means. We're watching.)

  Bangura also told Inner City Press, on a follow-up, that DPKO has suspended support to the two units. That is not consistent with what's been publicly said, and Inner City Press has asked DPKO to confirm or deny.

  Bangura's answer to Inner City Press also included that the US Ambassador to the DRC told her that one of the two units had been trained by the US. What does that say about the US' training?

(Reuters, whose scribe Michelle Nichols was present, may well present these Bangura answers as another Reuters faux scoop -- who knows, maybe Nichols will file another faux UN Security complaint.)

  Inner City Press also asked Bangura if her office, on Sexual Violence and Conflict, covers abuse by UN Peacekeepers. No, she said, there is a DPKO unit for that, it is sexual exploitation.

  But what about in Haiti the UN Peacekeepers who forcibly abused or mock-raped a boy? Isn't that abuse? Inner City Presss has asked DPKO to “name the five more recent repatriations of UN Peacekeepers or police for sexual exploitation or abuse, or state why it will not.”

  Bangura told Inner City Press she is following up on the muffed hand-over of child soldiers and “war brides” in the Central African Republic, that it is “chaos” there.

  A Department of Public Information official said, anymore questions? This is the time. So Inner City Press asked Bangura about allegations from Sierra Leone, naming her, about Gates / GAVI funds missing in the Ministry of Health which she headed.

  Bangura smiled and replied that when, as Tony Blair's suggestion, she took over the Ministry of Health, there were 88 accountants, with lack of clarity who had signing authority. The missing funds, one of her aides quickly added, pre-dated Bangura taking over the ministry.

  Bangura said, that's politics, people throw unfair allegations at you. And that, on personal experience, is true. What Inner City Press received about Bangura, and asked her in fairness both to her and the sender, was on the record. 

  The UN Censorship Alliance, by contrast, works anonymously in social media or comments, or filing stealth comments with UN Security, including, by AFP's Tim Witcher, explicitly in defense of Ladsous not getting asked the type of questions Bangura handled Tuesday. Watch this site.